Friday, February 11, 2011

Friday Forgotten Song: Castles in the Air

In the 1975 film adaptation of James Grady's first novel, the re-titled Three Days of the Condor, Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway portraying the reluctant 'draftee' to Robert Redford's Joe Turner) says something that decades later continues to strike a chord with me:

"Sometimes I take a picture that isn't like me. But I took it so it is like me. It has to be. I put those pictures away."

The printed photos of desolate city scenes ("lonely pictures", says Turner) in her apartment catch the protagonist's attention, and for which he finds telling. That they are personal in a way that's difficult for her* to share is obvious in those scenes. Such is the case with the song of this forgotten post.

12 comments:

Oh, man, you have tapped into one of my musical loves: the music of Don McLean. It's always been my dream to see him in concert, but the only time he was ever scheduled to be here in Columbus (that I'm aware of), the show was cancelled (don't know why).

I can't pick one of the two versions of CASTLES, I love them both. But I'm the girl who kept buying DM albums long after Top 40 radio ceased to notice him.

My favorite DM album is HOMELESS BROTHER. Any way I can talk you into writing a post about THE LEGEND OF ANDREW McCREW?

He's a great artist, Naomi. Looking at his published tour schedule, he seems to be a lot of overseas stops. I hope get puts on more U.S. stops and you get to see him soon. And I'll have to discover Mr. Andrew McCrew I'm sorry to say (but I will):

Way late to this post, but i'd like to express this to you regardless. i was born in 66. My first 4 years of life were pretty abusive. As such, i have some pretty distinct memories as early as age two.

Fast forward to 2010. I'm in a grocery store and here this song. I had never heard it before as far as i know, but nearly start crying in line listening to it. There have been times when i have played this song over and over through the entire day. It had a vague familiarity the moment i heard it in that store, and im quite certain i used to listen to it as a very young child. Why my first instinct was to want to cry...

Thank you very much for sharing your memories here, RadTact. I can't imagine how supremely difficult your childhood was because of the abuse you experienced. Music remains an amazing art form because it can transfix, soothe, and heal (at least, temporarily) its listeners. I sincerely hope it helped.

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About Me

A would be middle-child who ended up first born. This third-generation Mexican-American is a son of two Texans who moved to Los Angeles during the post-war migration of the forties (along with their Spanish speaking parents). That makes me a late-baby boomer (or since I was born in 1954, some now think I qualify to be a Generation Joneser). I ended up in a place I never thought I'd be--happily married, family man, working at a prestigious medical center well past a third decade now, and in technology. Just don't ask me to explain it.